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“IT OPENED A GREAT MOUTH, AND SMOKE SEEMED TO ISSUE 

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9 





The story of Sky-High is partly founded 
on a true incident of a young Chinese noble- 
man’s education, and is written to illustrate 
the happy relations that might exist between 
the children of different countries^ if each child 
treated all other good children like “ wangs.” 

28 Worcester Street, Boston. 

March 22, 1901. 




OOISTTENTS 


I. PAGE 

Below Stairs 7 

II. 

Before the Mandarin 13 

III. 

Lucy’s Cup of Tea 20 

IV. 

How Sky-High Called the Governor .... 26 

V. 

Sky-High’s Wonder-Tale 31 

VI. 

The Mandarin Plate 35 

VII. 

Sky-High’s Kite 39 

VIII. 

A Wan 44 

6 


6 


CONTENTS. 


IX. PAGE 

Lucy’s Jataka Story 48 

X. 

Sky-Higii's Easter Sunday 51 

XL 

Sky-Higii’s Fireworks 55 

XIL 

A Chinese Santa Claus C2 

XIII 

A Legend of Tea G8- 

XIV. 

Mrs. Van Buren’s Christmas Tale 70 

XV. 

In the House-Boy’s Care 76 

XVI. 

In the Little Wang’s Land 82 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


I. 

BELOW STATES. 

The children came home from school — 
Charles and Lucy. 

“ I have a surprise for you in the kitchen,” 
said their mother, Mrs. Van Buren. “No, take 
off your things first, then you may go down and 
see. Now don’t laugh — a laugh that hurts 
any one’s feelings is so unkind — tip-toe too ! 
No, Charlie, one at a time ; let Lucy go first.” 

Lucy tip-toed with eyes full of wonder to the 
dark banister-stairs that led down to the quarters 
below. Her light feet were as still as a little 
mouse’s in a cheese closet. Presently she came 
back with dancing eyes. 

“ Oh, mother I where did you get him ? His 
eyes are like two almonds, and his braided hair 
dangles away down almost to the floor, and there 
are black silk tassels on the end of it, and kitty 
is playing with them ; and when Norah caught 
my eye she bent over double to laugh, but he 

7 


8 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


kept right on shelling peas. Charlie, come and 
see ; let me go with Charlie, mother ? ” 

Charlie followed Lucy, tip-toeing to the foot 
of the banister, where a platform-stair com- 
manded a view of the kitchen. 

It was a very nice kitchen, with gas, hot 
water and cold, ranges and gas-stoves, and two 
great cupboards with glass doors through which 
all sorts of beautiful serving-dishes shone. 
Green ivies filled the window-cases, and gera- 
niums lined the window-sills. A fine old parrot 
from the Andes inhabited a large cage with an 
open door, hanging over the main window, 
where the wire netting let in the air from the 
apple boughs. 

On reaching the platform-stair, Charlie was as 
astonished as Lucy could wish. 

There sat a little Chinese boy, as it seemed, 
although at second glance he looked rather old 
for a boy. He wore blue clothes and was shell- 
ing peas. His glossy black “ pigtail ” reached 
down to the floor, and the kitten was trying to 
raise the end of it in her pretty white paws. 
As Lucy had said, heavy black silk cords we /e 
braided in with the hair, with handsome tassels. 

The parrot had come out of her cage, and 
was eying the boy and the kitten, plainly 
hoping for mischief. Suddenly she caught 
Charlie’s eye, and with a flap of her wings she 
cried out to him. 

“ He’s a quare one ! Now, isn’t he ? ” 

The bird had heard Irish Nora say this a 


BELOW STAIRS. 


9 


number of times during the day and had learned 
the words. Charlie could not help laughing out 
in response. With this encouragement Polly 
came down towards the door of the cage, and 
thrust her green and yellow head out into the 
room. “Now, isn’t he, sure?” cried she, in 
Nora’s own voice. 

Nora was sole ruler of this cheerful realm 
below stairs ; the only other inhabitants of the 
kitchen were the parrot and the kitten, and now 
this Chinese boy. Nora’s special work-room was 
a great pantry with a latticed window. Near-by 
a wide door led out into a little garden of apple, 

pear, and cherry trees ; the garden had a grape- 
arbor too, which ran from the door to a roomy 
cabin. Here was every convenience for wash- 
ing and ironing. 

Nora was a portly woman, with a round face, 
large forehead, and a little nose which seemed 
to be always laughing. She was a merry soul ; 
and she used to tell “ the children,” as Charles 
and Lucy were called, “ Liliputian stories,” 
tales of the Fairy Schoolmaster of Irish lore. 

The Chinese boy did not look up to Polly as 
she gazed and exclaimed at him, but shelled his 

peas. 

Presently, however, the pretty kitten whirled 
the industrious boy’s pigtail around in a circle 
until it pulled. Then he cast his almond eyes 
at her, and addressed her in a tone like the 
clatter of rolling rocks. 

“ Ok-oka-ok-a-a ! ” 


10 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


The kitten flew to the other side of the room, 
and Nora appeared from the pantry. When she 
saw the two children on the stairs, she put her 
hands on her sides and laughed with her nose. 
“We’ve a quare one here, now, haven’t we?” 
said she. 

Polly stretched her lovely head out into the 
room from the cage, and flapped her wings, and 
swung too and fro, and the kitten returned, 
whereupon the boy drew up his pigtail and tied 
it around his neck like a necktie. 

“See, children,” said Nora, pointing, “what 
your mother has brought home ! She says we 
must all be good to him, and it’s never hard I 
would be to any living crater. He came down 
from the sun, he says. What do you think his 
name is? And you could never guess! It’s 
Sky-High, which is to say, come-down-from-the- 
sun. And a man in a coach it was that brought 
him. Sure, I never came here in a coach, but 
on my two square feet; he came from the con- 
sul’s office — Misther Bradley’s — and a ship it 
was that brought him there. Ah, but he’s a 
quare kitchen-boy I 

“ But your mother, all with a heart as warm 
as pudding, she’s going to educate him ; and if 
he does well, she’s going to promote him up 
aloft, to take care of all the foine rooms, and 
furniture and things, and to wait upon the table, 
and tend the door for aught I know. She made 
me promise I would be remarkable good to him 
• — but it don’t do no harm for me to say that he’s 


BELOW STAIRS. 


11 


a quare one I he can’t understand it — he speaks 
the language of the sun, all like the cracking 
of nuts, or the rattling of a loose thunder-storm 
over the shingles.” 

“ Sky-High ? ” ventured little Lucy mischiev- 
ously. 

The Chinese boy looked up, with a quick 
blink of his eyes. 

“ At your service, madam,” said he in very 
good English. 

Nora lifted her great arms. 

“ And he does speak English ! Who knows 
but he understood all I said, and what the 
parrot said too. Poll, you go into your cage ! 
‘ At your service, madam ! ’ And did you hear 
it, Lucy? No errand-boy ever spoke in the 
loikes o’ that before ! I’d think h’d been brought 
up among the quahty. It maybe he’s a Fairy 
Shoemaker, spaking the queen’s court-language, 
and no errand-boy at all ! ” 

A bell sounded up-stairs, and the two children 
ran back. 

“ Oh, mother, never was there a boy like 
that ! ” said Charlie. 

“ Well,” said Mrs. Van Buren, “ you shall tell 
your father how you found little Sky-High — it 
will be a pretty after-supper story. I want you 
to think kindly of him, for if he does well he 
is to stay with us a year.” 

The children found their father in the dining- 
room ; and as they kissed him they both cried, 
“Oh, oh!” 


12 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“What is it now?” asked Mr. Van Buren. 
“ What has happened to-day ? ” 

“Wait until after supper,” said Mrs. Van 
Buren ; “ then they shall tell you of a curious 
event in the kitchen. There really is some- 
thing to tell,” she added, smiling. 


BEFORE THE MANDARIN I 


13 


11 . 


BEFORE THE MANDARIN! 

As Mr. Van Buren was a prudent, wise, and 
good-natured man, he left all the affairs of 
housekeeping to his wife. He had so seldom 
been “ below stairs ” that he never had even 
made the acquaintance of Polly, the lively bird 
of the kitchen. The kitten sometimes came up 
to visit him; on which occasions she simply 
purred, and sank down to rest on his knee. 

After supper was over, Mr. Van Buren caught 
Lucy up. 

“ And now what amusing thing is it that my 
little girl has to tell me — something new that 
Nora has told you of the Fairy Shoemaker ? ” 

“There’s really a wonderful thing down in 
the kitchen, father,” said Lucy; “ wonderfuller 
than anything in the Fairy Shoemaker tales.” 

“ And where did it come from ? ” 

“ Down from the sun, father, and Nora says 
it came in a coach ! ” 

Mr. Van Buren turned to his wife. 

“ It came from the Consul’s,” she said — 
“from Consul Bradley’s.” 

“ Has Consul Bradley been here ? ” he asked. 


14 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


thinking some Chinese curio had been shipped 
over. Consul Bradley was a Chinese consular 
agent, a man of considerable wealth, with a 
large knowledge of the world, and a friend of 
the Van Buren family. 

“ No,” said Mrs. Van Buren, “hut his coach- 
man has brought me a kitchen-boy.” 

“Well, that is rather wonderful! Is that 
what you have down-stairs, Lucy ? ” 

“ That doesn’t half tell it, father,” cried 
Charlie. “ He’s a little Chineseman ! ” 

“ I was in the Consul’s office this morning,” 
went on Mrs. Van Buren, smiling at her hus- 
band’s astonishment ; “ and the Consul said to 
me, ‘ W ouldn’t you like to have a neat, trim, 
tidy, honest, faithful, tender-hearted, polite boy 
to learn general work ? ’ I said to the Consul, 
‘ Yes, that is the person that I have been need- 
ing for years.’ He said, ‘Would you have any 
prejudice against a little Chinese servant, if he 
were trusty, after the general principles I have 
described?’ I said to him, ‘None whatever.’ 
He continued : ‘ A Chinese lad from Manchuria 
has been sent to me by a friend in the hong, 
and I am asked to find him a place to learn 
American home-making ideas in one of the best 
families. Y our family is that place — shall I 
send him ? ’ So he came in the Consul’s coach, 
as Lucy said, and with him an immense trunk 
covered with Chinese brush-marks. He seems to 
be a little gentleman : and when I asked him his 
name he said, ‘ The Consul told me to tell you 


BEFORE THE MANDARIN! 


15 


to call me Sky-High.’ He doesn’t speak except 
to make replies, but these are in very good 
English.” 

“ May I give my opinion ? ” asked little Lucy. 

“ Well, Lucy,” said her mother, smiling, “ what 
is your opinion ? ” 

“ He looks like an emperor’s son, or a manda- 
rin,” said Lucy. 

“ And what put such a thought into your 
head ? ” asked her mother. 

“ The pictures on my Chinese fans,” said 
Lucy promptly. 

•‘Well,” said Mrs. Van Buren, “if he does 
well, you shall treat him exactly as though he 
were the son of an emperor or a wang — he 
says that kings are called wangs in his land.” 

“ Then he would be a little wang,” said Lucy. 
“ I will make believe he is a little wang while 
he stays.” 

So Sky-High became a little wang to Lucy ; 
and a wonderful little wang he promised to be. 

At Mr. Van Buren’s wish, little Sky-High 
was. sent for. The Chinese boy asked Charlie, 
who went down for him, that he might have 
time to change his dress so that he might suit- 
ably appear before “ the mandarin in the parlor.” 
(A “ mandarin ” in China is a kind of mayor or 
magistrate of rank more or less exalted.) 

Charlie came back with the kitchen-boy’s 
message. “ He says that he wants a little time 
to change his clothes so that he may suitably 
appear before the mandarin in the parlor.” 


16 


LITTLE SET-HIGH. 


“ The mandarin in the parlor ! exclaimed 
Mr, Van Buren, in a burst of laughter. “My 
father used to speak of mandarins — he traded 
ginseng for silks and teas at Canton in the days 
of the hongs — the open market or trading- 
places. That was a generation ago. There are 
no longer any store-houses for ginseng on the 
wharves of Boston. Yet my father made all his 
money in this way. ‘ The mandarin in the 
parlor.’ Sky-High has a proper respect for 
superiors ; I like the boy for that.” 

By and by the sound of soft feet were heard 
at the folding-doors. 

“ Come in, Sky-High,” said Mrs.Van Buren. 

The little kitchen-boy appeared, and all eyes 
lighted up in wonder. He wore a silk tunic 
fringed with what looked like gold. His stock- 
ings were white, and his shoes were spangled 
with silver. The broad sleeves of his tunic 
were richly embroidered — he seemed to wing 
himself in. A beautiful fan was in his hand, 
which he very slowly waved to and fro, as if 
following some custom. Mrs. Van Buren won- 
dered if servants in China came fanning them- 
selves when summoned by their master. Sky- 
High bowed and bowed and bowed again, then 
moved with a gliding motion in front of Mr. 
Van Buren’s chair, still bowing and bowing, and 
there he remained in an attentive bent atti- 
tude. The kitten leaped up from Mr. Van 
Buren’s knee, then jumped down, plainly with 
an intention to play with the tempting pig- 


BEFORE THE MANDARIN I 


17 


tail — but Lucy sprang and captured the snowy 
little creature. 

“So you are Sky-High?” said Mr. Van 
Buren. “ Well, a right neat and smart-looking 
boy you are ! ” 

“ The Mandarin of Milton ! ” said the glitter- 
ing little fellow, bending. “ My ancestors have 
heard of the mandarins of Boston and Milton, 
even in the days of Hoqua.” 

“Hoqua?” Mr. Van Buren looked at the 
boy with interest, “ You know of Hoqua? ” 

“ Who is Hoqua? ” asked Mrs. Van Buren. 

Mr. Van Buren turned to her. “ I will tell 
you later.” 

“ Hoqua, madam,” said Sky-High, bowing to 
his mistress, “ was the great merchant mandarin 
of Canton in the time of the opening of that 
port to all countries.” 

How did a Chinese servant know anything of 
Hoqua? This was the question that puzzled 
Mr. Van Buren. “ Sky-High, how many people 
have you in your country ? ” he asked. 

“ It is said four hundred million.” 

“We have only seventy millions here, Sky- 
High.” 

“ I have been told,” said Sky-High. 

“And who is ruler over all your people?” 
asked Mr. Van Buren. 

“ The Celestial Emperor, the Son of Heaven, 
the Brother of the Sun and Moon, the Dweller 
in Rooms of Gold, the Light of Life, the Father 
of the Nations.” 


18 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“You fill me with wonder, Sky-High. We 
have a plain President. Do your people die to 
make room for more millions ? ” 

“ My people value not to die, O Mandarin ! ” 
said the boy. 

“ Such throngs of people — they all have 
souls, think you ? ” 

r~ A dark flush came upon little Sky-High’s 
forehead. He opened his narrow black eyes 
i upon his master. “ Souls ? The}^ have souls, 

V O Mandarin I Souls are all my people have for 
i^long.” 

“ Where go their souls when your people 
die ? ” 

“ To their ancestors ! With them they live 
among the lotus blooms.” 

“We will excuse you now,” said Mr. Van 
Buren to Sky-High. “You have answered 
intelligently, according to your knowledge. 

The kitchen-boy bowed himself out without 
turning his back towards any one, describing 
many glittering angles, and waving his fan. He 
looked like something vanishing, a bit of fire- 
works going out. 

As he reached the stair, the little white cat 
sprang from Lucy’s arms, and skipped swiftly 
after the curious inmate of the kitchen. The 

I 

long, swinging braid was a temptation. The 
last glimpse Charles and Lucy had was of an 
embroidered sleeve as Sky-High reached back- 
ward and caught the kitten to his shoulder, 
and boimd her fast with his queue. 


BEFORE THE MANDARIN! 


19 


Charlie clapped his hands. He thought 
there would be fun in the house. He knew 
he should like Sky-High. As they went up- 
stairs he said to Lucy, “ The little Chinaman 
was a heathen, and father was a missionary.” 

Mr. Van Buren heard him, and called him 
back. “ The little Chinaman was a new book,” 
said he, “ and your father was reading. See 
that you treat the boy well.” 



20 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


III. 

Lucy’s cup of tea. 

Mr. Van Buren’s home was on Milton 
Hill. It overlooked Boston and the harbor. 
The upper windows commanded a glorious view 
in the morning. Before it glittered the sea 
with its white sails, and behind it rose the Blue 
Hills with their green orchards and woods. The 
house was colonial, with gables and cupola, and 
was surrounded by hour-glass elms, arbors, and 
evergreen trees. It had been built by Mr. Van 
Buren’s father in the days of the China trade 
and of the primitive mandarin merchant, Hoqua. 

Mr. Van Buren, a tea-merchant of Boston, 
received his goods through merchant vessels, 
and not through his own ships as his father 
had done. 

The next morning Mrs. Van Buren went 
down early into her kitchen to assign Sky-High 
his work. 

Nora, in a loud whisper that the birds in the 
apple-boughs might have heard, informed Mrs. 
Van Buren that the new Chinese servant was 
“ no good as a sweeper,” and asked what he did 
with his pigtail when he slept. “ It must take 


Lucres CUP OF TEA. 


21 


him a good part of to-morrer to comb his hair, it 
is that long,” she said. “ And wouldn’t you 
better use him up-stairs for an errand-boy alto- 
gether now ? Sure, you wouldn’t be after teach- 
ing him any cooking at all ? ” Nora was an old 
servant and had many privileges of speech. 

Mrs. Van Buren smiled, and arranged that 
little Sky-High should wash and iron clothes in 
the cabin under the blooming trees, at the end 
of the arbor. 

“ And if you learn well,” said she, “ I may 
let you tend the door, and wait upon the table, 
and keep the rooms in order.” 

“ And then you will be up-stairs,” said little 
Lucy, where it is very pleasant.” 

“ And now, Sky-High, tell me how it is that 
you can speak English so well,” said Mrs. Van 
Buren, as they stood in the cabin, where the 
prospect of solitude seemed to please the boy. 
A gleam of something like mischief appeared on 
little Sky-High’s face. 

“And, Madame de Mandarin,” said he, “I 
speak French too. Parlez-vous Frangais, Made- 
moiselle Lucy?” he added rapidly, turning to 
the little American girl. Fardonne, Madame 
la Mandarin ! ” 

“ Sky-High will not say ‘ Mandarin ’ any 
more,” said Mrs. Van Buren. “There are no 
mandarins in this country, and when Sky-High 
is called into the rooms above he will wear his 
plain clothes, not spangled clothes. Now, who 
taught you English?” 


22 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“ My master, madam.” 

“ Say mistress, Sky-High.” 

My master, mistress.” 

“ Where did you live in Manchuria ? ” 

“ In the house of a mandarin.” 

“ And who was your master ? ” 

“ The mandarin, mistress.” 

“ Do mandarins in China teach their servants 
to speak English ? ” 

“ Some mandarins do, your grace.” 

“ Do not say ‘ your grace,’ Sky-High, but sim- 
ply mistress. Ladies have no titles in America. 
Where is the city in which you lived ? ” 

“ In Manchuria, on the coast, on the Crystal 
Sea.” 

The kitten came running into the kitchen, 
and at once leaped on to the end of Sky-High’s 
pigtail. 

The boy gave his pigtail a sudden whisk. 

“ Pie-cat ? ” asked he. 

“No, no! ” said Mrs. Van Buren in horror. 
“We have no pie-cats in this country. Was 
there an English teacher in your house ? ” 

Little Sky-High was winding his pigtail about 
his neck for safety. He saw Lucy giggling, and 
a laugh came into his own eyes. 

Pardonne, mistress. We had an English 
trader at the hong — at the trade-house.” 

“ Do they send servants to English teachers 
in China?” 

“ When they are to grow up and deal with 
English business, mistress.” 


LUCY'S CUP OF TEA. 


23 


“ Did you meet English people at the hong ? ” 

“ Yes, mistress.” 

“ Who were they ? ” 

“ I cannot name them. There were my lords 
and the admiral ; and the American Consul he 
came, and the German Consul he came, and the 
American travelers they came, and Russian 
officers they came.” 

“ How old are you, Sky-High ? ” 

“ There have passed over me fifteen New- 
Year days, mistress.” 

“Well, Sky-High,” said his mistress, “I am 
going to give you this cabin under the trees, 
where you may do your washings and all your 
ironings. No one else shall come here to work. 

I have decided to have you begin to-morrow 
to bring up the breakfast.” 

The next morning Sky-High performed his 
first service at the breakfast-table. He brought 
up the coffee while Mr. Van Buren was saying 
grace. He paused before the table. 

“ Sleepy, sleepy ! ” he exclaimed softly, “ all ^ 
sleepy ! ” 

Mrs. Van Buren put out her hand as a signal 
for him to wait. Sky-High did not understand, 
and the grace was concluded amid smiles. 

Sky-High wondered much what had made the 
family sleepy at that time of the day. They did 
not go to sleep at the breakfast-table in China. 

“The mistress and her people,” said he to 
Nora, “ shut their eyes and go to sleep at the 
breakfast.” 

“An’ sure, it is quare you are yourself ! 


24 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


They were praying. Don’t you ever say 
prayers, Sky-High ? ” 

“ My country has printed prayers,” said Sky- 
High with lofty dignity. 

“ You’re a hathen people. Here we call such 
as you a ‘ hathen Chinee,’ and there was a Cali- 
fornan poet that wrote a whole piece about the 
likes of you. Children speak it at school. Here 
is the toast — carry it up ! ” 

Lucy liked to see the little olive-colored 
“ wang ” moving about. One day at the table 
she requested him to bring her a cup of tea. 
The little Chinaman well knew that Lucy and 
Charles were not permitted to have tea. He 
inquired whether he should make it in the 
American or the Chinese way. 

“ In the way you would for a wang,” said 
Lucy. 

Sky-High soon re-appeared, his tray bearing a 
pretty little covered cup and a silver pitcher. 

“ Where is the tea ? ” asked Lucy. 

“ It is in the cup, like a wang’s,” said Sky- 
High. 

He poured the hot water on the tea, and fra- 
grance filled the room. 

Lucy, with a glance asking her mother’s 
leave, tasted the tea she had roguishly ordered. 

“We do not have tea like this,” she said ; “ is 
it tea ? ” 

“ Like a wang’s,” said Sky-High, blinking. 

“ Where did you get it ? ” asked Lucy. 

“ Out of my tea-canister,” said Sky-High. 

Little Lucy did not drink the tea, for little 


LUCY'S CUP OF TEA. 


25 


Lucy had never drunk a cup of tea ; but its fra- 
gi-ance lingered about the house through the 
day, and set her wondering what else the little 
Chinaman’s immense trunk might hold. 

It had been agreed between the Consul and 
Mrs. Van Buren that little Sky-High might talk 
with the family ; and like her husband she found 
the Chinese boy “ a new book.” She asked him 
many a curious question about the “ Flowery 
Kingdom,” and one day she learned that “ we 
never send our finest teas out of China.” Yes 
“ we ” said the washee-washee-wang, as the 
neighbor-boys called him. 


26 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH, 


IV. 

UOV\^ SKY-HIGH CALLED THE GOVERNOR. 

Cheerfully, in his fine blue linens, the 
little Chinese house-boy worked in his cabin a 
portion of every day. The bluebirds came 
close to sing to him and so did the red-breasted 
robins. Irish Nora and the parrot became very 
civil, and he grew fond of Charlie and Lucy. 

Some of the boys on their way to and from 
school made his only real annoyance. Sometimes 
when his smoothing-iron was moving silently 
under his loose-sleeved hand, or he was hanging 
the snowy clothes on the lines, they would hide 
behind a tree or corner, and shy sticks at him 
calling, “ washee-washee-wang ! ” He bore it all 
in an unselfish temper, until one day a big 
lump of dirt fell upon one of little Lucy’s 
dainty muslin frocks as he was ironing it. Then 
he said something that sounded like, “ cockle- 
cockle-cockle,” and closed all the doors and 
windows. 

At this crisis Charles and Lucy came to his 
side. They set wide again the doors and win- 
dows of the cabin under the green boughs, and 
promised him that they would forever be his 


HOW SKY-HIGH CALLED THE GOVERNOR. 27 


true friends and protectors. “It is time we 
began to treat him like a wang, as mother 
wished,” said Lucy to Charlie. 

“ The American boys throw dirt at me in the 
street,” admitted little Sky-High, in a reluctant 
tone — he did not like to bear witness against 
anyone in this sunshiny world. 

“ I will go out with you,” said Charlie, 
“ when you are sent out to do errands. I will 
stand between you and the dirt. The dirt 
comes out of their souls.” 

“ And I will watch around the corners and 
speak to them,” said Lucy. 

Sky-high’s heart bounded at these pledges of 
friendship, and he leaped about in a way that 
made the parrot laugh — sometimes he had the 
parrot in his cabin, and taught it Chinese words. 
“ The sun shines for all, the earth blossoms for 
all,” he said to the children ; “ it is only the 
heart that needs washee-washee and smoothee- 
smoothee. Everything will be better by and by. 
I talk flowery talk, like home, out here among 
the birds, butterflies, and bees.” 

(Nora said he “ jabbered ” all daylong in the 
cabin.) 

Mrs. Van Buren very soon promoted the care- 
ful little Chinaman to have all the care of the 
beautiful living rooms and the quaint old par- 
lors. He brought the flowers and admitted the 
visitors. He did his work in admirable taste. 
It shed a kind of good influence through the 
house, to see the little fellow in his fine linens 


28 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


flitting around, so careful was he to keep all 
things in speckless order. 

The chief drawback was that he still used 
“ flowery talk ” ; to him the world was a field 
of poetry, and he spoke in figures whenever 
he forgot himself. Mrs. Van Buren was still 
Madam the Mandarin, and he called Lucy the 
“ Lotus of the Shining Sea.” He received 
many reprimands for the use of these Oriental 
forms of speech ; but found it hard to harness 
his thoughts to track-horses, especially after the 
June days began to fill the gardens with orioles 
and humming-birds and roses. 

“ Why not let me talk after nature ? ” little 
Sky-High used to beg. 

One day the governor of the State came to 
visit the Van Burens. Sky-High spoke of him 
as the “ Mandarin of the Golden Dome.” He 
had several times been in Boston to see Consul 
Bradley, and knew the State House. 

In the evening Mrs. Van Buren gave him 
his morning orders. “ You will call the gover- 
nor to-morrow at seven o’clock. You will knock 
on his door, and you must use plain language ! 
You must not say, ‘ O Mandarin of the Golden 
Dome ! ’ We do not use flowery terms of 
address in this country. Mind, Sky-High, use 
plain language.” 

The little Chinaman feared that he would be 
“ flowery ” in spite of all his care. So he con- 
sulted with Irish Nora in the blooming hours of 
the morning. 


HOW SKY-HIGH CALLED THE GOVERNOB. 29 


“ What shall I say when I knock on the gov- 
ernor’s chamber-door?” asked he earnestly. 
“ What shall I say in the plain American lan- 
guage ? ” 

“ What shall you say ? Say, ‘ Get up ! ’ ” 

“ Is that all ? ” asked he doubtfully. 

“ Well, if you want to say more, say, ‘ Get 
up ! The world is all growing and crowing — 
the roosters are crowing their heads off ! ’ ” 

Sky-High went to the door of the governor’s 
room and knocked. 

There came a voice from within. “Well?” 

“ Get up I The world is all growing and 
crowing, — the roosters are crowing their heads 
off.” 

The “ Mandarin of the Golden Dome ” did 
not wait for a second summons, but got up even 
as Sky-High had bidden him. It was a June 
morning, and he found the world as he had been 
warned, “ all growing and crowing.” 

“ Have you called the governor ? ” asked 
Mrs. Van Buren, as she met Sky-High on the 
stairs. 

“ Yes, my Lady of the Beautiful Morning.” 

“ Did you use plain language ? ” 

“Sky-High used the American language.” 

“What did you say?” 

“ I said, ‘ Get up ! ’ ” 

“ Oh, Sky-High, now I will have to apologize 
for you ! ” 

“We never use plain language to mandarins 
in China,” said Sky-High. “ If we did, ‘ whish. 


30 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


whish,’ and our heads would be off before we 
could turn ! ” 

The Mandarin of the Golden Dome came 
down from the chamber ; and the Lady of the 
Beautiful Morning explained to him that her 
new boy had not yet mastered the arts of Ameri- 
can manners, although he intended to be correct 
when addressing his superiors. 

“ I didn’t notice anything whatever incor- 
rect,” said the governor, who had hugely en- 
joyed the manner of his summons. “ He awoke 
me — what more was needed ? ” 


SKY-HIGH'S WONDER-TALE. 


31 


V. 


sky-high’s wonder-tale. 

“ My Lady of the Beautiful Morning ” be- 
lieved in the education of story-telling ; and she 
did not limit her stories wholly to tales with 
“morals,” but told those that awakened the 
imagination. This she did for Lucy’s sake and 
Charlie’s, believing that all little people should 
pass through fairyland once in their lives. 

She used, like Queen Scheherazade of the 
Arabian Nights, to gather up stories that pic- 
tured places, habits, and manners of the people, 
to relate ; and this year, when the garden began 
to flower, she had many such to tell under the 
trees. Sky-High was always a listener. He 
was always permitted to be with the family in 
the evening. He loved wonder-tales. They 
carried him off as on an “ enchanted carpet.” 

One evening Mrs. Van Buren said, “I have 
a new idea. Sky-High might tell us some sto- 
ries. He speaks English well when he chooses. 
Sky-High, tell us some tale of your own country. 
You have wonder-tales in China.” 

“ In the stories of my country animals talk,” 
said Sky-High. 


32 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“ Tell US some of your stories in which ani- 
mals talk,” said Lucy, clapping her hands. 

“ Animals always talk, everywhere,” said Sky- 
High. “ In China we interpret what they say.” 

The word “ interpret ” was rather a big one 
for Lucy. But as Sky-High was given to using 
unexpected words, the little girl was herself 
beginning to indulge in a larger vocabulary. 

So Sky-High began to relate an old Chinese 
household story. 

The Self-Respecting Donkey. 

There was once a Donkey who had great respect for 
himself, as many people do. Such wear good clothes. 
You may know what a man thinks of himself by the 
clothes he wears. We Chinese moralize in our stories 
as we go along. We tell ihink-i2i\es. 

One day the Self-respecting Donkey went out into 
some green meadows near a wood, and was eating grass 
when a Tiger appeared on the verge of the meadow. 
The Self-respecting Donkej' was verj" much surprised, 
but did not lose his dignity. So he uttered a deep 
bray. 

‘ ‘ Br-a-a-a ! ” 

The Tiger, in his turn, was very much surprised — 
for the Donkey’s voice seemed to j^enetrate the earth. 
But as soon as he collected his wits he crouched as if 
to spring upon the Donkey and make a meal of him. 

The Self-respecting Donkey did not run. He moved 
with a slow, firm, and kingly step toward the Tiger. 
Then he dropped his head again, in such a way that 
his ears looked like great proclamations of wisdom and 
power. 

‘ ‘ Br-a-a-a ! ” 

His voice was truly terrible. The Tiger again 
quailed. 


SKY-HIGH ’ S WONBEE- TALE. 


33 


“ Oh, Beast of the Voice of the Thunder-winds,” said 
he, “ thou canst dispute with me and the Lion the king- 
ship among animals ! ” 

The Donkey brayed again in a more terrible voice 
than before. “If you will accompany me into the 
wood,” said he, “thou shalt see all animals flee from 
us.” 

The Tiger felt complimented by an association with 
the animal who had gained his voice from the thunder, 
and shortly they entered the wood. 

The animals all fled when they saw them coming — 
not from the Donkey, but from the Tiger. Even the 
Raven dared not speak, and the Lion slunk back among 
the rocks ; because a Tiger and a Donkey, together, 
might more than equal his terrifying roar. 

“ See,” said the Donkey, “ all nature flees before us. 
N’ow walk behind me, and I will show you the secret 
of my power.” 

The Tiger stepped behind; and the Donkey very 
quickly, in a pretty short time, showed him the secret 
of his power. He kicked the poor foolish Tiger in the 
head, breaking his nose, and stunning him. Then 
leaving him in the path for dead, he made good his 
escape. 

“ Any one can be great,” said he, “ if he knows how 
to use his power ! ” He was a philosopher. 

When the poor Tiger came to his senses he rubbed 
his nose with his paw, and began to reflect on the 
lesson that he should learn from his association with a 
Donkey. 

He reflected long and well — and never said anything 
about it to anyone. 

“ In my country,” added little Sky-High, “ we 
think that when one allows himself to get 
kicked by a donkey a long silence befits him — 
he can best show his wisdom in that way. Do 
you not think so, O Mandarin Americans ? ” 


34 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


The “ Mandarin Americans ” quite agreed 
with the conclusion drawn by Sky-High. 

It was about this time that little Lucy began 
to wonder if Sky-High were not a wang indeed. 
No common young Chinese could possess so 
many kinds of wisdom. He was able to read 
to her the labels on tea-chests, and to explain 
the odd figures on the many fans that decorated 
her playroom. 

“ How do you know so much, Sky-High ? ” 
she asked one day when he had told her the 
meaning of the pictures on an old Chinese por- 
celain in the upper hall. 

“ Many of the porcelains in our country are 
made to be read,” he said. “ All educated 
Chinese people can read porcelains. An Ameri- 
can porcelain has no story.” 


THE MANDARIN'S PLATE. 


35 



closets of many New England houses is a curious 
pattern of China plate. This plate is colored 
blue-and-white, and in the bowl of each is a 
picture. The picture represents a rural scene 
in China — a bridge on which are two young 
people, a man and a woman ; a house, and a tree, 
and two birds of beautiful plumage flying away. 
Mrs. Van Buren had such a plate, and a platter 
with the same rural picture, on her dining-room 
wall. 

It was the delight of Lucy to have Sky-High 
explain to her the meaning of the pictures on 
the Chinese vases and on an ornamental Chinese 
umbrella which hung in the reception-room. 
One day when Sky-High was dusting in the 
dining-room, Lucy’s eye fell on the blue-and- 
white plate with the picture of the bridge and 
birds. 

“ Oh, Sky-High,” said Lucy, “ mother has a 
treasure here — a porcelain plate of your 
country, see ! ” 

Sky-High looked up to the old porcelain. 


36 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


He had seen such a plate a thousand times ; so 
often, in so many places, that Mrs. Van Buren’s 
had not drawn his eye. 

“It is a mandarin plate,” he explained to 
Lucy. “ It has a magic power; it brings good 
luck. My people keep those plates for good 
fortune.” 

“ A magic plate ? ” Lucy was all curiosity, 
now. “ Tell me the story of the magic plate,” 
she said. “Sit down and tell me. Who are 
the young people on the bridge ? Begin.” 

“ They are the same as the birds flying away. 
The birds and the young people are one.” 

Lucy’s interest in the magic plate grew. 
Sky-High promised to tell her its legend at some 
time when her mother should be present. 

Lucy went at once to her mother. “ Oh, 
mother, we have a magic plate I ” 

“We have ? Where ? ” 

“It is the blue-and-white one over the side- 
board.” 

“ Oh I is that a magic plate ? That was 
your grandmother’s plate. Old families used to 
value that kind of ware from China — I do not 
know why.” 

“ Come with me, and take it down, for Sky- 
High knows the story of the picture.” 

Mrs. Van Buren went in and took the plate 
down ; and little Sky-High said, “ It is the man- 
darin plate of our country. In the plate you 
cannot see the Good Spirit in the air, but it is 
there. This Good Spirit in the air changes 


THE MANDARIN'S PLATE. 


37 


people into other forms when trouble comes, and 
they fly away.” 

“ But what is the story ? ” asked Lucy. 

“ There was once a prince,” said Sky-High, 
“ whose name was Chang. He was a good 
prince ; and there he is — the young man in the 
plate. 

“ And Prince Chang, the Good, loved a 
beautiful princess, a's good as she was prett}^; 
and there she is — the young woman in the 
plate. 

“ The prince and princess went to live on a 
beautiful isle, where was an orange-tree — see 
— and there was an old mandarin who lived 
near — see his house there — and he did not 
like the good prince and pretty princess when he 
saw how happy they were on the Isle of the 
Orange-tree. 

“ So he determined to separate them ; and one 
day, when he was very full of dislike, he went 
towards the bridge that led to the Beautiful 
Isle to catch them. But something very won- 
derful happened.” 

“ Oh, what did happen ? ” said Lucy. “ I 
can hardly wait to learn.” 

“ The Good Spirit of the air saw the grim old 
mandarin stealing away toward the bridge to 
cross to the Beautiful Isle of the Orange-tree, 
and he changed the prince and princess into two 
birds and they flew away. See them flying 
there at the top of the plate I ” 

“ I will give you the plate,” said Mrs. Van 


38 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


Buren to Lucy; “for it was your grandmother’s 
plate, and her name was Lucy, and she would be 
glad, were she living, to have you delight in 
a legend like that. It is good to think that a 
loving Spirit hovers over us when evil draws 
near us — I like the parable of the plate. I 
thank you for the story, Sky-High. Your 
country has good stories.” 

“ The story of the mandarin plate, ” said the 
little Chinaman, “ is also told in my country in 
a more tragic way ; that the lovely girl is the 
mandarin’s daughter, and that he slays the 
lovers, and that it is their souls that are seen 
flying away in the two birds. But it is the 
other story that our scholars like.” 


SKY-HIGH'S KITE. 


39 


VII. 


sky-high’s kite. 


Charles and Lucy wished to give Sky-High 
a surprise. They had come into possession of 
a kite which had been described to them as 
marvelous, and they got their mother’s permis- 
sion to take the little Chinaman to Franklin 
Park to see them fly it for the first time. 

Franklin Park is not far from Milton Hill ; 
and the street-cars readily carry the crowds of 
children to the pleasure-grounds of the immense 
common of woods, fields, great rocks and elms, 
and whole prairies of grass. It is quite free — 
the dwellers of close Boston and its bowery 
suburbs own the vast pleasure-place — the 
people could hardly have more privileges there 
did each one hold a deed of it. Little Sky-High 
thought this wonderful when it was explained 
to him. 

The Van Burens had ample grounds of their 
own, but Mrs. Van Buren and the children liked 
to go to Franklin Park. Mrs. Van Buren 
liked to sit in the great stone Emerson arbor 
on Schoolmaster’s Hill, and watch the white 
flocks of English sheep wander to and fro and 



40 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


feed, guarded and guided by shepherd-dogs, and 
to gaze away in an idle reverie at the Blue Hills 
under the purple charm of distance. 

No one jeered now when the Van Buren 
children appeared in the street with the little 
Chinaman. Nobody cried, “ Rat-tail ! ” No- 
body cried, “ W ashee-washee-wang ! ’’ He often 
rode with them in the carriage. People looked 
at him, to be sure, but only with interest — the 
fame of his accomplishments in the English 
language had gone abroad. 

It was a beautiful early summer day, the 
white daisies waving in the west wind. Cross- 
ing the field, from a little green hill the children 
prepared to send up the new kite. Out of his 
narrow black eyes little Sky-High looked at it, 
as they took it from the package and sent it up. 
It seemed simply a frame-work, but presently 
the American flag rolled out in the sky, as 
though it hung alone, or had bloomed there. 

Sky-High beheld it with pleasure. Great was 
America ! He was contented to sit and watch 
it for hours, or as long as the children pleased. 
It was not until sunset that the starry kite was 
hauled down through the golden air, and Lucy 
and Charles prepared to return home. 

On the way the little serving-man said, “I 
have a kite in my trunk. You let me fly 
it for you some day? You come with me 
here?” 

So another breezy day the Van Buren chil- 
dren came to the Park with Sky-High. Lucy 


SKY-HIGH'S KITE. 


41 


danced about in the green world for very light- 
heartedness. 

“ You stay at the overlook,” said Sky-High, 
pointing to the wild-fiower embankment sur- 
rounded by burning azalias, “ and I will show 
you how Chinese boys fly kites.” 

He had brought a thin package under his 
arm, and while Lucy and Charles waited at the 
embankment he ran like a thing of air out into 
the open fleld. 

It was a glorious June day; and the great 
elms with their fresh young foliage were glim- 
mering thick in the fiery sky, and like an emerald 
sea was the grass on the field, where hundreds 
of children were playing ball and other games. 

Sky-High threw to the air a bundle of red 
with a few light angles and circles of bamboo, 
and it began at once to rise and expand. It 
went up into the mid-air, and fold after fold 
rolled out, and there appeared a great dragon. 

All the children on the field stopped in their 
play to look up at it. The sun turned the 
dragon to intense red. To all appearance a 
terrible monster had taken possession of the 
air ! 

Suddenly the dragon wheeled about and went 
coiling along towards the overlook, Sky-High 
following and guiding its course. When it was 
just overhead it opened a great mouth, and 
smoke seemed to issue from it. 

“ Look out, little Lady of the Lotus,” cried 
Sky-High merrily, “ or it may swallow you ! ” 


42 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


The little girl ran aside, but the dragon made 
no attempt to come down. When at a height 
some twenty feet above the earth it paused. 
Then suddenly, with a puff, it poured down a 
shower of flowers, butterflies, and gilded paper, 
like a gold shower. The air was full of them ; 
they drifted here, there, and everywhere. All 
the children on the field ran to behold the won- 
der. Everybody shouted, and a great crowd of 
little people gathered around Sky-High to pick 
up the tissue flowers and butterflies. 

“ Ah,” said the little Chinaman, “ you ought 
to see him do that in the night, when all he 
sends down turns into fire ! ” 

There never had been seen a kite like Sky- 
High’s before. But the Chinese have been 
masters of kite-flying for more than two thou- 
sand years. Among their national festivals 
they have a kite-flying day. 

Sky-High often came there with his magic 
kite. He became a very popular boy in the 
Park. The Boston boys said “ Hello ! ” when 
they met him in his azure suit, quiet fun shining 
in his eyes. Lucy and Charles walked by his 
side with pride. They introduced him to all of 
their friends who asked it, and everybody spoke 
of him. 

“ Oh, he is such a gentleman, and so edu- 
cated! Haven’t you heard about him? He 
came to learn how to do business and under- 
stand our American homes. He will go back 
to his country and teach sometime. No doubt 


SKY-HIGH 'S KITE. 


43 


a working-boy can rise in China the same as in 
our land ! ” 

Lucy often begged her mother to let Sky- 
High wear his beautiful Chinese clothes to the 
Park — with his kite he would seem like a 
true enchanter 1 But Mrs. Van Buren strictly 
forbade. 


44 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


VIIL 

A WAN. 

One day there was heard a tremendous 
explosion in the department of Sky-High. 
Mrs. Van Buren came running down-stairs. 
Lucy followed her, all eyes and ears. Irish 
Nora met them, running up-stairs. The kitten 
fled out, and jumped over the fence. The 
parrot was shrieking. 

Above Sky-High’s door, Mrs. Van Buren saw 
a strange black character on a big red paper. 
It was a square character and somewhat like a 
heavy “ X ” and also somewhat like a heavy 
“ H.” 

Sky-High stood calmly ironing inside his 
little house at the end of the grape-arbor. 

Nora followed her mistress to that abode of 
mystery. 

“ It’s dynamated we are to be sure ! ” said she. 
“ I shut my eyes and run, for I thought it was 
Sky-High that had gone off — but there he 
stood ironing ! And there he stands now ! ” 

“ Sky-High,” said Mrs. Van Buren, “ what 
was that sound I heard ? ” 

“ Crackers, mistress.” 


A 


45 


“We are only allowed to fire crackers on 
holidays. Why did you light crackers ? ” 

“To disperse the evil spirits, mistress, the 
dragons in the air, the imps. It is the way we 
serve them in China.” 

“ There are no evil spirits here, Sky-High. 
What could have made you think that there 
were, Sky-High?” 

“ The cat — she is long bewitched after my 
queue. I fired the crackers to dis-power her — 
I saw her tail going over the fence ! She is 
dis-possessed. She will not jump at Sky-High’s 
queue any more. We shoot crackers in China 
when evil spirits come in the air. China is a 
spirit>-land, mistress. Our air is filled with 
bright spirits and dark ones. When the cat 
begins to frisk its tail, we know there has 
come a company of evil spirits. The little 
cat’s tail this morning went snap-snap ! ” 

“ Oh, Sky-High ! there are no evil spirits in 
this blooming garden,” said his mistress. “ The 
little white cat is possessed by a playful spirit, 
perhaps. What is that strange figure in black 
on the red paper flag over the door ? ” 

“ That is the wan, mistress.” 

“ And what is the wan, Sky-High ? ” 

“ The mystic sign that warns off evil spirits.” 
“ Did I not say there are no evil spirits 
here ? ” 

Here little Sky-High’s eyes began to blink. 
“ Why did master put a horse-shoe over the 
stable-door? ” 


46 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


Lucy looked up at her mother. And said 
Nora, “ I would discharge that sassbox of a 
Chinese at once ! ” 

“ Have you more crackers, Sky-High ? ” 

“ In my chest, mistress.” 

“ Keep them until the Fourth of July, Sky- 
High. At any time when you think there are 
evil spirits about, come up to me.” 

“ May Sky-High let the wan fly over his 
door ? ” 

“Yes,” said Mrs. Van Buren; “while the 
horse-shoe remains over the stable to keep 
witches out, you may let the wan stay. You 
have as much right to your superstitions as 
we to ours.” 

Sky-High in a serene and beautiful spirit 
continued ironing. 

Nora went back to her pantry. “ It’s not 
I that likes the foreign boy under the roof,” 
she said. “ He’ll be convertin’ the mistress 
into a haythen I It’ll not be long I’ll be here ! ” 

Lucy sat down outside among the trees and 
birds and watched the wan waving gently in 
the wind. How neat Sky-High looked in his 
flowing dress of white and blue ! She won- 
dered again if he were not indeed a wang ! 
After a while she made up her mind to relate 
a Jataka story that night. 

The curious tales their little serving-man had 
told, he called Jataka legends — all of them 
parables to illustrate the teachings of the 
divine Buddha. (Also these tales had accounts 


A WAN. 


47 


of mountains that were more than a million 
miles high, of trees that were a thousand miles 
tall, and of fishes that were thousands of miles 
long.) 

These tales had enchanted Lucy, though 
Charlie cared little for them — he preferred to 
hear of kites and other Chinese games. But 
Lucy seemed to catch their spirit. And in the 
evening, when Sky-High sat with them under 
the trees or in the balconies, she often said, 
“ Now tell us a Jataka story ! ” 

But one night she had said instead, “ Now 
let me tell you a Jataka story ! ” 

The idea that Lucy had a Jataka story 
seemed to greatly amuse Sky-High. But the 
tale itself set his black eyes shining and blink- 
ing. This had been Lucy’s tale : 

“ Sky-High, I dreamed that you were a wang 
and had lived in a palace.” 

To-day she sat a long time in the arbor to 
compose the tale she would tell in the evening 
when they would be on the veranda, with Sky- 
High on the stair at their feet. 

So in the evening she said, “ I have com- 
posed another Jataka story. Would you like 
to hear it, mother? Would you, Sky-High? ” 


48 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


IX. 


Lucy’s jataka story. 

Now the little Chinaman began his stories 
with words like these, for most Jataka stories 
so begin* 

“ Once upon a time in the days of Buddha 
Atta in Benares.” 

To-night Lucy began her tale in nearly the 
same manner — the words sounded so fine. 

“ Once on a time, after the days of Budda- 
Atta in Benares, there was a little Chinese boy 
who was born a wang, which is a king. And 
they called him Wang High-Sky. 

“ And he lived in a palace, and the stairs of 
the palace were golden amber, and the windows 
were of crystal, and all the knives and forks 
were made of pearl and silver. 

“ And they told little Wang High-Sky that 
there were countries beyond the water, also. 

“And the little Wang High-Sky said, ‘Let 
me go and see. There may be something I can 
learn in other lands. There may be queer peo- 
ple there — if so, I would never laugh at them. 
Let me go and see how they live ! ’ 

“ And they put him on board a dragon boat. 


LUCY'S JATAKA STORY. 


49 


with lanterns of silver and pearls, and with sails 
of silk, and carried him to the great hotel on 
the water, that had come from other lands, 
which was called a ship. For there truly were 
people beyond the water. 

“And little Wang High-Sky was a very 
bright boy. He had a diamond in his brain. 
So he found a place to live in an awfully good 
family, and in the family was a little girl named 
Lucy. V 

“ And he worked and worked and worked 
until he could do all things like the good 
family. 

“And one day he thought he would go 
home to his palace with stairs of golden amber 
and windows of crystal. 

“ And Lucy thought she would like to see 
the people in little Wang’s country. 

“And Lucy’s father and mother said they 
would take her to the country of little Wang 
when he went back. 

“And she went to little Wang’s country, and 
she found the trees there a hundred miles 
high, and the fishes two hundred miles long, 
and horses winged with gold as if just about 
to fly, and they staid and kept house in Wang 
High-Sky’s palace two thousand years. 

“And she and her father and mother and 
brother were very joyful when they all came 
back. 

“ And in their own country they found that 
every one had become rich and happy, and that 


50 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


people flew about like birds, and that the sun 
shone in the night. And 1 ” she added, “ isn’t 
that a Jataka story?” 

Lucy’s mother seemed much pleased, also 
astonished ; but Sky-High said nothing for some 
time. 

“Do you think me a wang?” asked he, at 
last. 

“ I wish you were — oh, how Charlie and I 
would dance about if you were ! I think the 
everyday boys in China cannot be like you. 
And I do not think you ironed clothes in China. 
I wish you were a king’s son ! ” 

“ And what if I were ? ” 

“Oh — I don’t know,” laughed little Lucy. 
“ Don’t we treat you as well as if you were ? 
Ladies and gentlemen treat ladies and gentlemen 
like wangs in America. Don’t we, mother ? ” 

“ I trust so. I trust our little Sky-High 
has found it so,” answered Lucy’s mother. 

“ So would Sky-High treat you were you to 
come to his home,” said the little Chinaman. 

“ But you have no home, Sky-High,” broke 
in Charlie. “You said you lived with a man- 
darin ! ” 

The little Chinaman, who had a beautiful 
fan in his hand, for it was a hot night, made 
his mistress and her children a bow of inde- 
scribable grace, and went to his own quarters. 


SKY-HIGH'S EASTER SUNDAY. 


61 


X. 


sky-high’s EASTER SUNDAY. 

The little Chinaman seemed to make no 
very great task of learning “ the art of the 
American home.” His small deft olive hand 
was more or less upon everything, from cellar 
to attic. 

“i" think our house-boy knew how to keep 
a house beautiful, mother, before he came to 
our country,” said Lucy one day. 

“ Well, perhaps he was a wang,” said her 
mother, “ and did live in a palace ! ” 

“Doesn’t Mr. Consul Bradley know about 
him, mother ? ” 

“ Consul Bradley says Sky-High’s father is a 
good man, and that Sky-High is a good boy 
with a bright mind. Of course, Lucy, there are 
nice Chinese people and nice Chinese homes.” 

Certainly the little house-boy was wonder- 
fully energetic. He was able to save every 
Thursday for himself, and always went into 
Boston on that day and, as Mrs. Van Buren 
learned, visited the consular office. 

One day Mrs. Van Buren asked, “What do 
you do all day in town, Sky-High ? ” 


52 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“ I see Boston, mistress.” 

“ And what is it you see ? ” 

“The American stores, mistress, and the 
American little Kinder-schools, and the Ameri- 
can great college-schools, and the American 
railcar shops, and the American hotels, and 
the American markets, and the Americans, 
mistress.” 

“And who goes with you on these visits, 
Sky-High?” 

An attack of blinking seized little Sky-High. 
“ The consul, he goes.” 

Mrs. Van Buren drove into town next day. 
While there she made a call upon the Chinese 
consular agent. Lucy was with her. Consul 
Bradley appeared to have little fresh informa- 
tion to give. 

“ The boy’s father is a good man,” he said. 
“ Like the wise fathers everywhere he craves 
knowledge for his son. I promised him Sky- 
High should see something of Boston, and I do 
for him all I can.” 

“ Mother,” said Lucy on the way home, “ we 
might be nicer to Sky-High. Listen ! ” 

Her mother listened to Lucy’s plan, and gave 
permission. 

When Lucy got home she said to Sky-High, 
“We want you to go to church with us; and 
Charlie and I want you to go with us to our 
Sunday school. There are Chinese Sunday 
schools in Boston, but we wish you to be in 
ours.” 


SKY-BIGWS EASTER SUNDAY. 


58 


“ I will have to wear my queue, and my flow- 
ing clothes, Lucy,” said the boy. 

“But, Sky-High, you can braid your braid 
close, and wind it around your head, and put on 
your black tunic, and you shall sit in our pew. 
Besides, anyway, it would be proper for a per- 
son of China to wear his braid down his back 
after the custom of his country.” 

“ You speak as kindly as would the daughter 
of a wang ! ” said Sky-High, with his beautiful 
bow of ceremony. 

On Sunday the little Chinaman dressed his 
hair becomingly and put on black clothes, with 
white ruffles. He sat in the Van Buren pew, 
beside Charlie. He listened to the organ like 
one entranced. It was Easter Day, and the 
house was full of the odor of lilies. The text 
for the service was these words of Jesus : 
“ If any man keep my sayings he shall never see 
deaths 

The “ Joss preacher,” as he called the minis- 
ter, came and spoke to him, and invited him 
to go into the Sunday-school room. 

In the evening he made Chinese tea, and 
served it in the library, and afterward sat with 
the family. 

Suddenly he said, “ Mistress, what were the 
‘sayings’ of Jesus? Sky-High wishes to live 
on forever.” 

Mrs. Van Buren read the Beatitudes. 

“ And what is the heaven, mistress ? ” 

“ Sky-High,” said Mrs. Van Buren, very 


y. ?«/)/>/ 


54 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


earnestly, to her little servant, “I scarcely 
know how to tell you what heaven is, only that 
we surely have a part in its building here by 
our Loving and our Helping here. You know 
how dear it is to be with those you love, you 
know how pleasant it is to meet again those you 
have helped. That is the law of the soul. God 
loves and helps us, and will rejoice in having 
us abide with him, and that will make us 
happy ; and all whom we have made better and 
happier here will help make our heaven for us. 
Heaven is the gladness of Loving and Helping 
as nearly as I know.” 

“ That heaven — it is beautiful, mistress,” 
said little Sky-High. In his own country, it 
had been pleasant music to hear the “ prayer- 
wheels ” go round in the temples, whirling the 
paper prayers fastened upon them, but the 
pleasure he felt at this moment was different. 

“ I will help many, mistress,” he said. “ Per- 
haps Sky-High will help the boys that pull his 
queue on the street when he goes errands to the 
stores. Sky-High will go with his mistress and 
her children other Sundays, if he may. Good- 
night, mistress ! ” 

So ended the Easter Sunday of the little 
Chinaman. 


SKY-HIGH'S FIUEWOEKS, 


65 


XL 


sky-high’s fieewoeks. 

One June evening, in the balcony, when Sky- 
High inquired about American holidays, Mrs. 
Van Buren related to him the story of Washing- 
ton and of the American Independence. She 
enlivened her narratives by Weems’s story of 
the boy Washington and the hatchet. 

“ He never told a lie ? ” asked Sky-High. 
“ Was that so wonderful ? Confucius, he tell 
no lies ; Sky-High, he tell no lies.” 

Mrs. Van Buren described to him Indepen- 
dence Day, and how it was celebrated. Sky- 
High asked many questions, and began to look 
forward to the celebration. 

On the morning of the Fourth the sun came 
up red, and glimmered on the cool sea and dewy 
trees. To Sky-High the air seemed to blossom 
with flags ; the far State House dome rose like 
an orb of gold above the bunting that floated 
over the great forest of Boston Common. 

Cannon rent the morning silence, and every- 
where there were crackers bursting. Even the 
milkmen fired them as they went on their 
early way. 


' T' 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


56 


Sky-High danced about. “ You have Cracker 
Day ! It is all same as China ! ” he said. 

Some of the Milton boys who had many 
bunches of fire-crackers, good-naturedly thought 
they would startle little Washee-washee-wang 
at his work. So they stole around a corner 
of the garden, where he was busy in his neat 
little cabin, and “ lit ” a whole bunch and threw 
it over the fence, at a point where all would “ go 
off ” right at his door, then threw after it two 
cannon crackers, whose fuses burned slowly. 

When the small crackers began to explode 
Sky-High, to whom the noise was like music, 
came and stood in the door and danced with 
delight. 

Irish Norah heard the rattling explosions in 
the garden, and ran out. 

“ China! China ! ” shouted Sky-High. “ Red 
crackers make the bad spirits fly ! The garden 
all free from evil spirits all day.” 

Just then both of the cannon crackers in the 
grass “ went off,” with a deafening bang. 
Norah jumped, and put her fat hands to her 
ears. But little Sky-High clapped his after the 
American fashion. His delight in the racket 
and in the smell of the gunpowder was so intense, 
that Charlie forebore to go out on the street, but 
staid in and fired his immense supply in front of 
the cabin. 

In the evening there were fireworks every- 
where, small and great. The children and 
Sky-High went up to a turret overlooking the 


SKY-HIGH'S FIREWORKS. 


57 


^ea. The sky over the towns around Boston 
blazed. 

“ I will show you something fine,” suddenly 
said Sky-High, after he had gazed for some 
time. 

He went down and unlocked his great chest. 
He spoke to Mrs. Van Buren’s friends on the 
verandah as he came back. “ Sky-High, he 
is going to fire a star ! Look this side ! ” 

He called to all as he “ fired the star.” The 
company saw a dark, swift object ascending. It 
was soon lost to sight, and then appeared a won- 
der — a new star high in the heavens, that 
burned a long time with a steady flame and 
grew. How beautiful it was ! At last it began 
to descend. When near the earth it burst into 
a hundred stars of seven colors. In all Boston 
there was no firework as wonderful as Sky- 
High’s. 

The day after he began to inquire about the 
next American holiday. 

Mrs. Van Buren told him about Thanksgiving 
Day. Then she told him of Christmas, and 
how the Christmas festival was kept. She re- 
lated the story of the birth of the Christ Child, 
and of the Bethlehem star, of the singing angels 
in the sky, of the Magi, and the manger ; of the 
presents of gold and myrrh and nard. She told 
him how that now all people of “ good will ” 
made presents to each other like the magi to 
the Christ Child. 

“ So will Sky-High make you presents on the 


58 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


Christ Child day, then. He has good will. 
You have treated him as though he were no ser- 
vant but a prince.” 

Charlie and Lucy told him of the Christmas- 
tree, and the plays under the misletoe. Their 
mother ordered misletop from Florida every 
year, for Christmas decorations, from a planta- 
tion which their father owned near Tampa, a 
plantation of grape-fruit groves. She had a 
mistle-thrush among her caged birds, that always 
sang very sweetly when she hung it under the 
newly-gathered waxy misletoe. 

From that time on, the little Chinaman 
dreamed of Christmas. One day he said to 
Mrs. Van Buren, “You will surely let Sky- 
High come up-stairs on the night of tibe Christ- 
mas-tree ? ” 

“ Yes, yes, you shall come up-stairs with us, 
and you shall hear the Christmas thrush sing 
under the misletoe.” 

Sky-High’s heart fluttered, not at what he 
hoped to see, but at the thought of the presents 
that he hoped to make. 

Shortly before Christmas Mrs. Van Buren 
went to her little servant to pay him his wages, 
for he had accepted no payment as yet. 

“ Keep it all for me,” he said, as usual ; “ I 
will ask for it when I need it.” 

Mrs. Van Buren was very much surprised. 
“ Young people in this country,” said she, “ think 
they need a little money before Christmas day 
to buy presents.” 


SKY-HIGH'S FIREWORKS. 


59 


“ Sky-High needs none. He will make you 
presents on the Christ Child day. He has them 
now in his chest.” 

Mrs. Van Buren could not but wonder what 
the presents would be. Everything that Sky- 
High did had a surprise in it. All things that 
came out of the chest were of an astonishing 
character. 

“ And 1 will serve you the tea that you have 
not yet tasted,” added the little servant. “ On 
the Christ Child night I will make in the cup 
the tea that came from the eyelashes of the 
Dharma. And afterwards I will tell you the 
story of the Dharma.” 

Again, a day or two before the holiday of 
Good Will, Sky-High’s mistress asked him to 
take his wages. 

“ Keep it for me, mistress,” said the boy as 
before. “ Sky-High, he works for the good of 
his people.” 

Mrs. Van Buren stood pondering the words. 
What meant the little Washee-washee-wang? 

“ Mistress,” said the boy, busy folding the 
glossy napkins on the ironing table, “ the mas- 
ter plans to make a voyage around the world 
with his family.” 

“ Yes, Sky-High,” said Mrs. Van Buren, “ that 
the children may see the world before they 
begin to study about it.” 

“ And you will come to my country, mistress? ” 

« Yes ; we hope to visit at least Hong Kong 
and Canton, Shanghai and Pekin.” 


60 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“ You will wish to see the home of Sky-High, 
mistress.” 

“ Yes, we would like to see you in your own 
country.” 

“ When will the master go ? ” 

“ Next year, probably.” 

“ Sky-High will go home next year. Will you 
let him go with you, mistress ? He will serve 
you on the ships, and in China he will make 
your visit pleasant. He will interpret for 
you, and show you about, and introduce you 
about.” 

Mrs. Van Buren was too kind to let her as- 
tonishment be seen by her little serving-man. 
She said that possibly it might be so arranged. 

As she went up-stairs she heard Nora exclaim- 
ing to herself in the pantry. “ And he says 
he’ll inthroduce the misthress about, and the 
misthress is narely as quare I ” 

After supper Mrs. Van Buren related to her 
husband the singular interview she had had with 
their little Chinaman. Sky-High’s kind offers 
seemed to amuse him for a long time. But 
as for the little fellow’s wages,” said he, “ don’t 
bother. I’ll step in to the consul’s, and deposit 
them with Bradley.” 

When Sky-High found that he was serving 
to amuse his mistress’s household, he turned 
silent. He worked, asking few questions, and 
listened to even the children without answering 
them. 

This disturbed Charlie and Lucy. 


SKY-HIGH'S FIREWORKS. 


61 


“ See here, Sky-High, can’t you take a joke ? ” 
demanded Charlie. 

“ Sky-High no joke with the mistress. Sky- 
High no make a lie ! ” said the patient China- 
man ; “ Sky-High, his heart is hurt.” 


62 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


XIL 

A CHINESE SANTA CLATJS. 

The day before Christmas Lucy came to her 
mother with a request. “ Just one thing, 
mother ! And it isn’t more presents — the 
Good Will tree hangs full ! ” 

“Well, then, what is it, Lucy?” asked Mrs. 
Van Buren. 

Little Lucy laughed. “ A Chinese Santa 
Claus, mother ! Think what a Santa Claus 
Sky-High would make in his flowing robes of 
black, yellow, and white all sprinkled over with 
silver and gold ! Nearly all the gifts are 
Chinese, you know — all but ours for him. 
Just remember how he looked last summer on 
Sunday afternoons when the birds flew down 
to admire him ! ” 

Yes, the birds seemed to have felt a curi- 
osity about the little Chinaman when he went 
out into the garden with the children after 
Sunday luncheon; for sometimes, on that day, 
he used to put on garments so splendid that he 
did not like to show himself above stairs or 
on the street, and the birds came out of the 


A CHINESE SANTA CLAUS. 


63 


trees to take a peep at him. One of these gar- 
ments was a frock of silk covered with golden 
dragons, lotus-flowers, and gilded fringes; and 
with it he wore a golden butterfly with jeweled 
wings on his rimless cap. 

Even Mr. Van Buren had wondered where a 
servant obtained such a gflttering robe I One 
day he described the wardrobe of his house-boy 
to the consul. “ Is everything all right?” he 
asked. 

The consul laughed. “ You don’t know 
China ! ” he said. “ Probably the old Manchu- 
rian mandarin had a fancy for decking out the 
boy 1 ” 

Nora’s eyes used to double in size when she 
saw him in silk and gold and silver, with the 
jeweled butterfly waving above his narrow 
black eyes. “There’s not the loikes on this 
planet,” she would say. “ I would think he’d 
stepped off a star and landed here I Queen 
Victory never looked the aqual of that little 
hathen varmit ! ” 

It was agreed that Sky-High should be made 
the Santa Claus of the Christmas party. He 
promised to appear in his dragon robe, though 
he said it was never worn in public excepting 
on vice-royal occasions. 

“Sky-High, did you ever see a vice-royal 
occasion?” asked Lucy, wondering what the 
double word meant. 

“ Yes, my little Lady of the Lotus,” answered 
the house-boy. “ And once I was present on a 


64 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


royal occasion in Pekin. The Son of Heaven 
appeared that day in all his splendor.” 

“You waited on your mandarin?” asked 
Lucy. 

“ I attended upon my mandarin — yes ? ” 
Little Sky-High burst forth into the forbidden 
“flowery language.” “It was in the Purple 
City. Barbarians cannot understand; but in 
our court, in the Inner City, in the ancient 
Purple City, we associate with the Sun and 
Moon and the Dragon that swallows the Sun. 
The Sacred Lotus is our flower, and at the feast 
the heavens are made to shine on us ! ” 

Lucy’s face shone too, just to hear the words of 
the mysterious little “ W ashee-washee-wang,” 
— in fact she had been radiant ever since she 
had first thought of making a Santa Claus of 
him. She wondered how he would look to her 
mother’s friends on Christ Child night, wearing 
his “ celestial ” robes. 

The children were to have their own tree on 
Christmas eve, at the church among the ever- 
greens and music, and Sky-High was to accom- 
pany them in his black clothes and white 
ruffles. The Christmas night tree was always 
at home, for Mrs. Van Buren and her friends. 

Little Lucy was to lead the Christmas night 
jollities, and only the Santa Claus himself knew 
what would follow the wave of the long Chi- 
nese wand which she carried. 

The guests gathered early — half a dozen 
ladies — for it was to be a story-telling evening. 


A CHINESE SANTA CLAUS. 


65 


Promptly at the moment when Lucy waved 
for him, little Sky-High came into the parlors 
fanning slowly with his great ceremonial fan, 
as if entering some languid pagoda garden of 
his native land. Every guest leaned forward 
to gaze at the gorgeous stranger. His silk 
stockings were white, over black shoes with 
silver buckles and whitened soles. His robe 
sparkled gaily with the dragon and lotus, and 
the butterfly on his gold-banded cap shook its 
jeweled wings with every step. He wore a 
sash of gems which the family had not seen be- 
fore. He moved before the company like a 
figure of sunshine. 

Little Lucy had come to his side. “ I have 
the great felicity,” she began — she had got the 
fine word from Sky-High — “ to have a celestial 
Santa Claus, a wang from China, to serve you 
the gifts from the Good Will tree.” 

The glittering wang bowed to the four cor- 
ners of the earth, then to all, turning round 
and round in dazzling circles. 

No, Mrs. Van Buren’s Christmas guests had 
never seen a Santa Claus like this one ! All 
eyes were wide With pleased wonder. 

“ Isn’t he perfectly splendid ? ” whispered 
Lucy, tripping over to the wife of the rector. 

“ He is indeed, dear,” said the rector’s wife ; 
and added low, to her neighbor, “ Is it not their 
wonderful house-boy ? ” 

No one was certain. And no one, excepting 
Lucy and the Santa Claus, knew what were the 


66 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


gifts on the Good Will tree. Lucy and little 
Sky-High had bought them in Boston. All 
those for the guests were blue-and-white manda- 
rin plates, wrapped in squares of gay silk crape, 
and tied with a profusion of soft gold cord. As 
the packages were alike, the celestial Santa 
Claus could present them without mistakes. 

But there were some packages in red-and-gold 
crape still on the tree, not laig^e ones — not 
magic plates, certainly. 

The Santa Claus unwrapped the three which 
he next took from the green branches. The 
presents were amulets. When unfolded they 
revealed bells and gems ; the bells looked like 
gold; the gems like pure pearls, opals, and 
crystals. One was a necklace for Mrs. Van 
Buren ; one a bracelet for Lucy ; and the other 
a charm for Charles. 

The amulets awakened a great surprise. The 
little golden bells burned with the red lusters 
of rubies, and tinkled as though they were 
dream-bells. 

“They keep evil spirits away,” said Sky- 
High, with sparkling eyes. “They ring warn- 
ings.” 

Mrs. Van Buren rose and put one of the 
other packages in little Sky-High’s hand. The 
wrappings revealed a four-fold case of gold, 
which some curious mechanism permitted to 
open into leaves, and stand as a tablet, or half- 
closed. Each leaf held a small and perfect por- 
trait — the four were of the little serving-man’s 


A CHINESE SANTA CLAUS. 


67 


mistress and her children and the master; and y » 
it is impossible to describe the blissful expres- ^ 
sion in Sky-High’s eyes when he first looked 
upon the familiar faces. ^ 


And there was still another package. That 
one the little Chinaman had put on the Good 
Will tree for Nora. 

It was an English gold sovereign in a case 
tied with red ribbon. 

“ And may the Angel of Mercy spread her 
white wings over that hathen boy’s pigtail ! ” 
said Nora, as she was given the gift. “1 wish 
I had something for him. I will give him kind 
words now, and sure I ” 


68 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


XIIL 

A LEGEND OF TEA. 

At a wave of little Lucy’s wand the shining, 
golden Santa Claus floated away as he came. 
When he next appeared — and it seemed but 
a moment or two after — he bore a salver that 
was gorgeous to see. Upon it, sending up 
clouds of steam, was a wonderfully beautiful 
pitcher that his mistress never before had seen, 
encircled by some exquisite small black cups, 
inlaid and encrusted heavily with gold, each 
with a perforated cover. 

“ Sky-High presents to his mistress, the Moon 
jLady of the Christ Child Night,” the little fel- 
low said in his best flowery English, “ and to 
her friends, the Stars of the Midnight, the man- 
darin tea in the mandarin cups of his country — 
they will please to be accepted from the Santa 
Claus.” 

From the pitcher he poured the bubbling 
water in the mandarin cups, when an exquisite 
fragrance filled the rooms, as of apple-blossoms. 

While the guests sipped the priceless tea from 
the priceless cups, at the request of his mistress 
the little Chinaman related a Buddhist legend. 


A LEGEI^I) OF Tea. 


69 


The Dharma’s Eyelashes. 

More than four hundred and a thousand years ago, 
O Madame my Mistress, the great Dharma came to 
China to teach the people. He ate only fruits, and he 
slept but little; he gave his time almost entirely to 
meditation. 

The Dharma ate less and less, and slept less and 
less, and all things were beginning to appear clear to 
him within, when a drowsiness came over him, and It 
increased day by day. 

One day his eyelashes became too heavy for his 
eyes ; they hung like little weights on his eyes, and he 
fell asleep. 

He awoke after a long time. The inner light had 
gone. He felt that he had committed a great sin. 

“It is you, my little eyelashes,” he said, “that 
weighed me down, and I will punish you. I will cut 
you off.” 

Then the great Dharma cut off the little black eye- 
lashes, and strewed them upon the ground. As he did 
so he had the inward light again. 

He meditated. As he did so the little eyelashes on 
the ground turned into wee shrubs, and began to grow. 

They were tea. 

The Dharma ate the tea. The shrub filled his heart 
with joy and gladness. So tea came into the world. 
Drink it — it will fill your heart with joy and gladness. 

The Rector’s wife gave the Santa Claus a 
seat by her side that he might share with the 
company the pleasure of the Good Will story 
his mistress was next to relate ; and little Lucy, 
too, and Charlie came and sat near-by, for they 
loved their mother’s stories, and could always 
understand them. 


70 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH, 


XIV. 

MRS. VAN BUREN’S CHRISTMAS TALE. 

The most beautiful story Mrs. Van Buren 
had found in her search during the year for a 
tale to tell her friends around the Good Will 
tree was one in the German tongue. She had 
translated it during the summer, and now called 
it by a title of her own as she told it. 

Red Mantle, the House Spurit. 

There was a German pedler who traveled from city 
to city by the name of Berthold. He grew in wealth, 
and at last carried portmanteaus of jewels of great 
value. He usually traveled only in the daytime, and 
so as to arrive early in the evening at the town inns 
between the Hartz Mountains and the Rhine. 

But on one journey he was belated. He found him- 
self in an unknown way in a great fir forest, where the 
dark pines shut out the lamps of the stars. He began 
to fear, for the forests were reputed to be infested with 
robbers, when suddenly a peculiar light appeared. It 
was a fire that fumed with a steady fiame ; he perceived 
it was a charcoal pit. 

The colliers are honest people, he reasoned; and 
with a light step he approached the pit. 

Near-by was a long house, two stories high, and the 
lower windows were bright with the candles and fire 
within. 


MRS. VAN BUREN'S CHRISTMAS TALE. 71 


He approached the house, and knocked upon the 
door. 

The door was opened cautiously by a middle-aged 
woman, with a bent form and beautiful, but troubled 
face. 

“ What would thee have, stranger? ” 

“ Food and lodging, madam.” 

“That can never be — not here, not here. It dis- 
tresses me to say it, but it would not be for your com- 
fort to tarry here.” 

“ But I am belated, and have lost my way. I must 
come in.” 

“ I will call ray husband. Herman, come here ! ” 

She stepped aside, when an elderly man appeared, 
holding a light shaded by his hand, and followed by a 
group of children. 

“I am a belated traveler,” said he to Herman, the 
collier, “ and I have lost my way. I see that you are 
an honest man, and I may tell you that I have merchan- 
dise of value, and so it is not safe for me to go on. 
Give me a shelter and a meal, and I will pay for all.” 

“It is loath I am to turn away a stranger, but this 
is no place for a traveler. The house is haunted, yet 
it will not be so always, I hope ; but it is so now.” 

“ But, good man, I am not afraid.” 

“ You do not know, stranger.” 

“But I can sleep where you can, and where this 
good woman can live with her innocent children.” 

“You don’t know,” said the woman. “You don’t 
know.” 

“ But I must rest here. There may be thieves with- 
out, wolves. There cannot be worse things within. I 
must come in, and I will.” 

Berthold forced his way into the house, and sat down 
near the fire, laying his portmanteau near him. 

The family were silent, and looked distressed. But 
the woman set before him a meal. 

“ Let us sing,” said the collier at last. 

He turned to a table where were musical glasses, 


72 


LITTLE SKY-mam 


and began to play. How sweet and delicate, like an 
angel’s strain, the music was ! Then he began to sing 
with his family : 

“ Now the woods are all sleeping, 

O guard us, we pray ! ” 

The merchant thought that he had never listened to 
anything so beautiful. 

After the old German song, Herman said : 

“Let us pray — will you kneel with us, traveler? 
You may have need of our prayers, for you have come 
in to us at your peril.” 

Much astonished at these words, the merchant knelt 
down beside his portmanteau. The collier began to 
pray, when there was a light sound at the storm-door, 
and a draft of wind stirred the ashes. 

The merchant turned his face towards the door. 

A strange sight met his gaze, such as he had never 
seen before. A little dwarf stood there with eyes like 
coal and with a red mantle. He moved the door to and 
fro. His eyes gleamed. He looked like a burning 
image. At last, swaying the door, he gave the mer* 
chant an evil glance that seemed to burn out his very 
soul, and was gone. 

The prayer ended, and the family rose from their 
knees. 

“ I will now show you to your chamber,” said the 
collier; “ but before we go up, listen to me. If you 
do not think one evil thought or speak one evil word 
during the night, no harm will befall you. Promise 
me now that you will not think one evil thought or 
speak one evil word, whatever may befall you.” 

“ I promise you, good people, that I will try not to 
think one evil thought or to speak one evil word, what- 
soever may befall me.” 

“ And you must not ^ive way to anger; if you do, 
anger is fire, and he will grow ! ” said the collier. 

The collier led the merchant up the stairs to his 
room and left him there, saying, “Remember.” 


MRS, VAN BUBEN^S CHRISTMAS TALE. 73 


The moon shone into the room. The Swiss cuckoo 
clock struck ten — eleven — twelve. The merchant 
could not sleep. He was haunted by the fiery eyes 
that he had seen at the storm-door. 

Suddenly the door of his own chamber opened, and 
a red light filled the room. The same dwarf with the 
red mantle had entered the chamber and was approach- 
ing the bed. 

The merchant had laid his portmanteau of jewels 
upon the foot of the bed, with the straps hanging over 
the bedside. He put his foot down under the clothes 
60 as to touch the case. 

The light grew brighter, and advanced nearer. 
Now the dwarf stood full in view, his eyes flashing, 
and his feet moving as cautiously, his head now and 
then turned aside, and his hands lifting the red mantle. 

He came to the foot of the bed, and stood there for 
a time. The merchant grew impatient, and felt his 
anger rising. 

The dwarf turned away his flaming eyes from him and 
began to handle the straps of the portmanteau of jewels. 

The merchant’s anger at the annoyance grew, and 
became uncontrollable. 

“ Avaunt ! ” cried he with terrible oath, leaping from 
the bed. 

The dwarf stood before him and began to grow. He 
shot up at last into a flame, and stretched out his arms. 
He was a giant. 

“ Help ! help ! ” cried the merchant. 

There was a sound in the rooms below. The red 
giant reeled through the door and down the stairs and 
out into the night. 

The collier came running up the stairs. 

“ What, what,” he demanded, “ have you been doing 
to our House Spirit ? ” 

“ To your House Spirit ? ” 

“ Yes, he has just gone out ; he is a giant again! ” 

The good wife was following her husband, and 
wailing. 


74 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“Now we will have to live him down again; oh, 
woe, woe; this is an evil night; we will have to live 
him down again.” 

“Stranger,” said the collier, “these things may 
seem strange to you, but when we came here our lives 
were haunted by the red giant that has gone out into 
the wood. We knew not what to do, but we sent for 
the old pastor, and he said : ‘ Good forester, you can 
live him down. Think only good thoughts, speak only 
good words, do only good deeds, and he will become 
smaller and smaller, less and less. Harbor no evil- 
minded person in your house You may one day live 
him out of sight, and change him into an angel.’ We 
had almost lived him down ! ” 

“ But what was he?” asked the merchant. 

“ He was our Visible Temptation.” 

In the morning the merchant hurried away. 

Ten years passed. The merchant chanced to travel 
through the same forest again. Night was coming on, 
and he recalled the collier’s house. 

He went to it again. He knocked and an old man 
met him at the door. 

“ Thou art welcome,” said the old man. “We are 
not forgetful to entertain strangers. What wouldst 
thou ? ” 

“ Supper and lodging,” said the merchant. 

“ They shall be yours. We offer hospitality to all.” 

He was Herman, the collier. He did not recognize 
the merchant. 

The old woman — for she was now gray — set before 
him an ample supper. The children had grown to be 
young men and women. 

The cuckoo clock struck the hour of nine. 

The collier altered the musical glasses. 

“Will you join with us in singing?” asked he of 
the traveler. 

The family sang as before the old German hymn : 

“ Jfow the woods are all sleeping. 

Guard us we pray.” 


MRS. VAN BUREN^S CRRISTMAS TALE. 75 


“ Let us pray now,” said the collier. 

They knelt; the merchant by his portmanteau as 
before. 

He watched the storm-door. It did not open. But 
he became conscious of light overhead. He looked 
up. A star was forming there. Then a face of light 
on whose forehead gleamed the star. 

Then wings of pure light were outstretched above 
the family. 

“Amen,” said the collier. 

The light over him vanished. 

The collier’s family had lived down the demon, and 
changed him into an angel. 

The Christmastide passed, but for days after- 
ward the story of the forest family that Kved 
down all the evil in them and turned it into an 
angel, haunted the mind of little Sky-High. 

“ I will tell that story, mistress,” he said one 
day, “at the Feasts in my Country of the 
Crystal Sea.” 

“ And to whom will you tell it, Sky-High ? ” 
asked Mrs. Van Buren. 

“ The Mandarin of the Crystal Sea is not 
deaf, mistress. Sky-High will tell it to him.” 


76 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


XV. 


IN THE house-boy’s CARE. 

Lucy and Charles were full of joy when it 
was fully decided that they were to be taken on 
a voyage around the world. They spent whole 
evenings with Sky-High, tracing the route on 
the maps and globes. They would go by the 
way of San Francisco or Vancouver, and thence 
to Canton. They were to visit Sky-High’s 
land first of all. 

“ They’re all gone mad sure ! ” said Nora ; 
“ and that boy’ll never send ’em back ! ” 

Mr. Van Buren wished to learn something of 
the Chinese language as spoken, and was willing 
to study an hour every evening with the house- 
boy, and Lucy and Charles picked up the funny 
choking phrases as fast as their father. 

Mr. Van Buren said that Manchuria, the land 
of the conquering Tartars, was likely to play a 
notable part in the history of the future in con- 
nection with the great Siberian railway ; and the 
whole family began to take an interest in the 
history and condition of that vast province on 
the Ameer, where little Sky-High had lived. 


IN THE HOUSE-BOY'S CARE. 


77 


Mrs. Van Buren read aloud to them all the 
story of Kubla Khan and of Tamerlane, and of 
Marco Polo, the great traveler, and about the 
Mongols, the Buddhist missionaries, the Great 
Wall, the long periods of peace and temple build- 
ing. They studied the maxims of Confucius 
and the accounts of modern missionaries. 

For Charles and Lucy to hear these stories of 
the country that had given the world fire-crack- 
ers and silk, and was, moreover, the land of their 
dear little Sky-High, was like listening to the 
“ Arabian Nights.” The winter passed away 
quickly, delightful with their preparations for 
the great journey. 

“ You said that you had lived with the man- 
darin of Manchuria, I think,” remarked Mr. 
Van Buren to Sky-High one evening. 

“ With a mandarin in Manchuria, master,” 
corrected Sky-High. “ There are many man- 
darins in Manchuria. Manchuria is a large 
country.” 

“Are there more people than in Boston?” 
asked Charlie. 

“ I do not know how many there are in 
Boston — there are fifteen million in the prov- 
ince of Manchuria.” 

“ Did the mandarin live in great, wonderful, 
gorgeous splendor? ” asked Lucy. 

Sky-High’s eyes opened with a gleam. “ His 
gifts are gold,” he said. “ His dragons have 
teeth of gold. The monoliths in his garden are 
one thousand, it may be two thousand years old 

LofC. r . 


78 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


At the Feast of Lanterns he covers the sky 
over his palace with fire. You should see his 
gardens and the gables of his houses ! It takes 
some minutes to speak his whole name.” 

“ I wish I could look upon a man like that ! ” 
said Charlie. I hope we shall see that man- 
darin when we go to China.” 

“ That will be easy,” said Sky-High. 

The family sailed away from the Pacific coast 
in the spring. Mr. and Mrs. Van Buren really 
felt very glad to have such an intelligent ser- 
vant as Sky-High for their visit to the Chinese 
provinces, even though they were to leave him 
behind at his home. 

When they arrived at Hong Kong there was 
a surprise. Some officials at the port appeared 
to recognize Sky-High, and brought to him an im- 
portant-looking mail which he received with a 
sudden dignity. He also was paid attentions 
from notable Chinese people, such as servants 
would not seem likely to meet. 

Mr. Van Buren finally explained it to himself. 
He carried letters to many consuls and commer- 
cial houses. Sky-High was noticed because he 
was in his service. “ In such countries,” said 
Mr. Van Buren, “ customs are different from 
ours.” 

Certain high Chinamen in the hongs — the 
trade-houses — bowed low in a most respectful 
way to Sky-High, their manner very noticeable. 
Whenever Lucy and Charles accompanied him 


IN THE HOUSE-BOY'S CABE. 79 


they were offered Chinese sweetmeats or novel 
toys of ivory and jade. 

“ The people are very kind and polite to you,” 
said Mr. Van Buren to Sky-High, one day. 
“ You are fortunate to come back in our service. 
Our family has traded with China for three 
generations; I suppose we are known nearly 
everywhere.” 

“I am fortunate, master,” said the little 
Chinaman. 

They prepared to go on to Canton. Sky-High 
arranged the journey, and explained the details 
to Mr. Van Buren. He had an air of taking 
the family under his protection, and seemed to 
be wholly familiar with the way along the boat- 
lined waters. 

“We are to stop just before we reach the 
city,” he said to Mr. Van Buren, “ to meet a 
mandarin of Manchuria of the Crystal Sea. 
He is visiting at the summer palace of a grand 
mandarin of Canton. A barge will come out to 
meet us. There will be fireworks. I have 
arranged it all. Besides these two there will be 
also a mandarin from the Yellow River.” 

“ ‘ Meet us ! I have arranged it all ! ’ What 
does our little house-boy mean ? ” thought Mr. 
Van Buren. He called Sky-High, and asked 
him to explain his strange words. 

“ I have arranged it all,” said Sky-High sim- 
ply. “ A barge will meet you, and take you to 
this summer palace. There will be fireworks 
for the sake of Charles and Lucy ; the heavens 


80 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


will blaze. The mandarins have heard of your 
family. They wish to receive you and to please 
the children of the mandarin of Boston.” 

Lucy danced at these hospitable words. She 
had treated little Sky-High like a wang. She had 
dreamed that he was a wang. Perhaps — well, 
little Lucy found it thrilling to feel that almost 
anjrthing splendid might happen I 

But Mr. Van Buren had no idea that his 
family had become of importance to the gran- 
dees of China, although it was true that his 
father and grandfather had traded in the coun- 
try and had extensive correspondence with the 
hongs. “ Sky-High,” said he, “ you must be 
simply amusing yourself I A grand mandarin 
would not order fireworks for Charles and Lucy. 
What mandarin is he ? ” 

“ Of the Crystal province. He has heard 
of you ; he wishes to honor you as a noble 
American and the friend of his people.” 

Mr. Van Buren wondered if his wife’s little 
house-boy had gone insane. He spoke with im- 
patience. “Let us not be foohng ourselves 
with this business any longer ! ” 

“ I have never deceived you, master,” said the 
little serving-man. “ I am as the great George 
Washington in his youth. The mandarin of the 
province of the Crystal Sea holds you in high 
esteem, and he wishes to entertain the children.” 

Mr. Van Buren inquired at the American 
consular office concerning this “ Mandarin of 
the province of the Crystal Sea.” The consul 


IN THE HOUSE-BOY CABE. 


81 


informed him, with a smile, that the mandarin 
in question was especially rich and powerful, 
that he took an interest in American manners 
and customs, and often entertained Americans 
who had been kind to his people in America as 
well as merchants who had dealt honorably with 
the Chinese. 

Still, Mr. Van Buren could not understand 
how a great and high-born mandarin should be 
in communication with his servant. 

Here little Lucy spoke up. “ Papa, I know it 
is all 80 ! Our Sky-High has never told a lie. 
Even General George Washington would have 
liked him ” 


82 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH, 


XVI 

IN THE LITTLE WANG’S LAND. 

The family set out for Canton under the 
direction of their little servant, whose heart 
seemed full of anticipation and delight. 

The boat stopped when some distance still 
from the city. A gilded barge with a dragon’s 
head and silken curtains had come to meet them. 
Not far away they saw a landing, with boats 
and people. 

“ You are to wait for me here,” said little 
Sky-High, as he went aboard the barge. “ I will 
return soon.” 

Gongs sounded, banners waved, as the gilded 
boat made its way through the river craft. Mr. 
Van Buren could see a row of sedan chairs 
standing upon the landing, gorgeous in gilded 
frames and silk curtains, with bearers and ser- 
vants in rich costumes. Presently, among these 
people they saw their little Sky-High approach 
a tall man, who seemed to be a master of cere- 
monies, when the gongs were again beaten. 

“ Well, this is growing somewhat remark- 
able!” said Mr. Van Buren. “Yes, even if 
the boy is returning from America with Ameri- 


IN THE LITTLE WANG^S LAND. 83 


cans whose name is noted in the commerce of 
the country ! ’’ 

Sky-High returned ; the family went aboard 
the cushioned boat, and at the landing were 
assisted into the sedans, and carried up the 
water-steps into a high garden, with pavilions, 
and then on to other gardens away from the 
river. Golden gables shone above the trees. 
The hedges were full of blooms and bees, and 
lovely birds went flashing by. The trees were 
hung with red lanterns that seemed as light as 
air ; and there were dragon kites in the sky. It 
was like an ethereal paradise, even to the now 
silent Boston merchant. 

A vista opened, showing a house where 
guards in brilliant Chinese uniforms stood at 
the door. Then again gongs sounded. 

Three mandarins in robes of silk, their but- 
tons of rank glittering in their caps, came down 
the wide pathway, as though to meet the visi- 
tors, before whose chairs little Sky-High walked. 
One of them, a stately man, nearly seven feet 
high, suddenly spread out his arms ; whereupon 
Sky-High rushed forward, prostrated himself, 
and was almost wrapped from sight, as he was 
lifted in the immense sleeves of silk and gold. 

Mr. Van Buren was now truly filled with 
amazement. Little Sky-High’s mistress was 
terrified. The children didn’t know exactly 
what to think, sitting together in their sedan, 
only that they were glad to see the tall mandarin 
enfold their own dear Sky-High in his flowing 


84 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


silk robes ! Little Lucy was half crying. “ I 
believe, I do believe, that he was a wang all the 
time ! ” she at last said to Charlie. 

The palace was wonderful. Strange lamps 
hung over them as they passed in. There were 
beautiful couches and chairs, with gilded arms 
and silken cushions. The walls were set with 
carvings and perforated work. Here hung bars 
of musical bells; there stood great jars and 
vases ; everywhere were fantastic furnishings of 
silks and costly metals. Feathery green bam- 
boos grew in dragon pots. In the corners stood 
grotesque figures in armor. 

The lamps in their golden lattices burst into 
soft flame. 

“Unaccountable!” said Mr. Van Buren to 
himself. “ Sky-High would hardly be better 
welcomed were he the wang that Lucy dreamed 
him to be I ” 

“ Mandarin of Boston,” said the tall China- 
man, with an obeisance the like of which was 
never made in western lands, “ welcome to our 
country; you have been good, indeed, to this 
boy — the Light of my Eyes, the Heart of my 
Heart! Madam of tliis illustrious mandarin, 
never will I forget you, nor ” — turning to the 
two half-frightened children — “ nor you, my 
little Prince and Princess of the Golden Dome 
beyond the seas ! All shall always be well for 
you all in our country ! ” 

The tall Chinaman spoke in “ flowery En- 
glish,” easily ; but the American family knew 


IN THE LITTLE WANG^S LAND. 85 


not what to say, nor how to answer, and they^ 
bowed in silence and Lucy said to herself, “ The 
little wang knew what to do in my country, 
but I do not know what to do in his I ” 

A little later Mrs. Van Buren, beckoning 
him to her side as though she were in her own 
house, said to Sky-High, in lowered tones, “ Is 
this tall mandarin the mandarin in Manchuria 
that was your master before you came to 
America ? ” 

Little Sky-High bowed, with a sudden blink 
of his almond eyes. “ Mistress,” said he, “ he 
was the mandarin who sent me to America, in 
care of the consul, that I might know of the 
American home-life. He wishes me to learn 
everything that will be of good to me and my 
country when I am a man ” — 

“ Is he any kinsman of yours ? ” interrupted 
his mistress. 

“Yes, my noble madam.” 

“ Pray, what relation may he be to you? ” Mrs. 
Van Buren asked, a strange sensation rushing 
over her, 

Lucy and Charles stood near, drinking in 
every word. 

“ The prince is my father, mistress,” answered 
little Sky-High. 

The two children, standing in the shelter of a 
carven screen, clapped their hands in the Ameri- 
can fashion. Lucy cried out, though softly, 
“ Oh, Sky-High, we are so glad, so glad ! You 
are a wang ! You were a wang all the time I ” 


86 


LITTLE SKY-HIGH. 


“Even as you treated me, always, my little 
Lady of the Lotus ! ” answered Sky-High, bow- 
ing before the children and their mother in the 
manner of his gorgeous father. 

That night there was a feast in the summer 
palace of the Canton mandarin in honor of the 
return of the little prince, and the visit of his 
great American friend, the mandarin of Boston. 

Over the tea of Dharma the mandarins related 
Chinese tales for the entertainment of the illus- 
trious American. The little prince told the 
story of the German collier family who changed 
a haunting evil into a guardian angel. 

And the prince, his father, said, “ That must 
be a true tale, for it is as it would be with men 
and spirits in China. The wisdom of Buddha 
is in the story.” 

The next day, in the pavilion by the lake of 
the rosy nelumbiums, where she sat with her 
mother, and the wonderful Chinese ladies and 
children, little Lucy said to Sky-High. “ I al- 
ways treated you like a wang, didn’t I ? ” 

“And we will treat you here as a viceroy 
would treat another viceroy’s little girl,” said 
Sky-High — whose real name was Ching — the 
Prince Ching. ' 


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